No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

Texas Redistricting

Rick Perry has just called the second special session of the Texas Legislature this year for the specific purpose of redistricting the congressional districts so that five or six of the current Democratic incumbents will not be able to be reelected. The Democratic Senators have moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico so that the Senate cannot get a quorum needed to pass legislation.

Perry is beginning to look very bad from this. The special sessions cost $1.7 million per month, and Texas is in the position of already cutting nursing home reimbursements and Medicaid for children because there isn't enough money.

This was brought about by Tom Delay, the Republican Leader of the federal House of Representatives who is elected from the 22d Texas Congressional district. Prior to the elections in November 2002 he arranged for several million dollars of corporate soft money to be sent to Austin, TX and used to target 42 Democratic Texas Legislators. It was probably also used to help get Rick Perry elected as Governor. This allowed the Republican Party to take control of all three branches of government for the first time since Reconstruction after the Civil War.

In my opinion, the redistricting fight is payback to Tom Delay for the money he provided that put them into power. I also suspect that the campaign finance law in federal elections meant that the same money could no longer be used in federal elections. In particular, it could no longer be used to target Texas Democratic Congressmen in the US House, so this is an end run around the campaign finance laws. The money that couldn't be collected to defeat Democratic congressmen was instead used to take control of the State of Texas Legislature, and the redistricting is designed to get rid of the Congressmen that Tom Delay can no longer use the soft money against directly.
posted by Richard at 11:13 PM